Indoor Activities for your Dog
If your dogs are anything like our dogs, outside time is part of your daily life. Time outdoors is not only a good time to work out their body, but it’s a time for them to explore, sniff and have mental exercise. However, when the weatherman advises to stay inside because it’s -15 degrees, your pooch may have a hard time adjusting to the increased indoor time.
In order to help get the physical and mental activity our dogs require, there are various indoor activities we love.
Hide and Seek – You and your family members hide around your home and encourage your dog to find you one at a time. You can also hide their favorite food or toys somewhere and encourage them to find it. For each round increase the difficulty of the hiding spot. Not only is all the searching good for the nose and body, but it’s excellent to flex the brain muscles.
Monkey in the Middle – Toss a ball (a soft textured one for indoors) passed the dog to another person. Your dog will run back and forth to catch it. Every few repetitions let the dog win the ball and start again.
Tug of War – This old favorite is a great way to burn off energy inside. Just make sure you have enough space so you or your dog doesn’t knock anything over.
Treadmill – The treadmill is one of our favorite things! Most days many of our dogs work out on the treadmill to start their day rain or shine (cold or nice). Although it doesn’t replace a walk, it does supplement daily exercise and is a great tool for when it is literally too cold to go outside. Teach the treadmill slowly with lots of reward and call us to help so that they can get the hang of it safely.
Have fun with your stairs – Use your stairs to tighten your dogs heel and to teach them patience (they sit at the top and wait for you to call them to the bottom and vice versa).
Grooming – Poor weather is a great time to spend extra time grooming your dog! It takes patience and energy on the dogs part to sit through bathing and brushing which tires them out. It also leaves you with a pretty pooch!
Challenging Toys – You don’t even have to leave the house to get challenging dog toys your pooch will love! One of our dogs’ favorites is when we hide treats in a paper towel tube and tape the ends shut. The dogs have to tear apart the tube (or box or whatever you have) to get to the treats. Simply monitor them so they don’t eat the cardboard.
New tricks or skills – Teach a new trick or proof some of their commands. How well does your dog stay in one place? How long can they hold a standing position in one spot? Can they “speak” on command? Time inside can still be fun and challenging for your dog!
The most important thing to remember is to make time with your dog meaningful and rewarding for both you and your pooch!
